Nautilus cup with scenes depicting "The Marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite" and the "Birth of Venus"

Between 1500 and 1700, exploration and trade throughout the known world brought to Europe shores of fragile and exotic materials that were considered to be rare, valuable, and sometimes magical. This carved and decorated nautilus cup is a rare survivor from the work of engraver Cornelius Bellekin, a member of a family that included many carvers of mother-of-pearl. Bellekin is also spelled Belkin and Bellequin. He was a seventeenth century shell engraver in Amsterdam. Bellekin's subjects included portraits, biblical episodes, and rural scenes, but his mythological scenes were regarded as his finest work.